


Putting Out

by firefright



Series: A/B/O fics [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alpha Slade Wilson, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Historical, Arranged Marriage, Consequences, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Imprisonment, Kidnapping, M/M, Omega Jason Todd, Royalty, Unplanned Pregnancy, stockholm/lima syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 15:20:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18607210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: Almost two years ago, Slade kidnapped Jason on the orders of his employer, Ra's al Ghul. Now, also on Ra's' orders, it's time to take the young prince back where he belongs. But after living so long together in almost complete isolation, the lines between kidnapper and prisoner have become irreparably blurred, making what should be a relatively simple task infinitely more complicated for the both of them.





	Putting Out

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! This weekend is the [SladeRobinWeek Mini-Event](https://sladerobinweek.tumblr.com/), and this here is my fic for the first day's prompts, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics and Imprisonment (because when ABO's a prompt in anything, there's no way I can resist). Please mind the tags before reading onwards, and enjoy!

The atmosphere in the room is cold as Slade finishes speaking, not that he expected anything different from the boy sitting across from him. Prince Jason Todd-Wayne of Gotham has been his captive now for over a year and a half. Time that, for all its ups and downs, has made sure the news Slade has just given him will be less than welcome.

“You’re getting rid of me.” Jason says, flatly.

“I am returning you home,” Slade replies, “As per my instructions. Considering that’s all you’ve whined for since the day we met, one would think you’d be grateful.”

“I haven’t asked for that for a long time,” Jason protests, shifting the bundle in his arms uneasily, “And besides, my circumstances since then have…” He looks down, “Changed.”

Yes, Slade thinks, they most certainly have.

“You always knew this was temporary, kid. I told you that from day one.”

Day one, being the day he intercepted the boy’s carriage, riding merrily on its way to Star City for his arranged bonding, then slew all of the accompanying guards before hauling out a violently protesting Jason in turn. That the omega knew how to fight was the first warning sign that this job wasn’t going to go as smoothly as it should; his black hair and blue eyes, the second. Because, as Wintergreen often told him, Slade has a notable weakness for pretty boys possessing exactly those features, and a certain degree of defiant aggression, intelligence and exploitable neediness to boot.

It hadn’t helped that his employer, one Ra’s al Ghul, had also given Slade total leeway in how he handled Jason’s imprisonment. The where and the how. As well as a certain other, very important aspect of close-quarters living with an omega.

He shouldn’t have.

He did.

Jason rocks the baby in his arms. “You’re going to send us away. Your _daughter_.”

“I’m going to send her somewhere where I know she’ll be taken care of, which is somewhere far away from me.” Slade answers in clipped tones, “And you, I’m sending back where you belong.”

“To where I’ll be pitied and a pariah,” Jason bites back, glaring. “The pathetic pauper prince who got himself kidnapped and then came crawling back with a bastard child.”

“Your family won’t care about that.”

“Everyone else will.”

“Do you really care about what everyone else thinks?”

“ _No_ ,” Jason says at once, immediately, “But I do care about the comments she’ll grow up hearing. The words they’ll say about her. The ones they said about me for being adopted from the slums will be nothing in comparison.”

“Then you better make sure to raise her to know better than to listen to malicious rumours.” Slade leans back against the wall as Jason snarls at him, “You need to get it through your head, kid. This is not a romance, and there was never going to be a happy ending here. I’m not some gentlemanly alpha who came to sweep you off your feet and save you from an arranged marriage out of the goodness of his own heart; I’m a mercenary, a killer, and the only reason I’m here in the first place is because someone paid me to be.”

“I know that!”

The babe in Jason’s arms stirs at his shout, and Slade is granted a few seconds of peace as he hurriedly turns his attention to calming her back down. Though at the same time, Slade also feels his own instincts rear their heads at the sound of that small cry, forcing him to have to stifle the urge to go over there and offer some reassurance himself.

He can’t let himself get attached. No more than he already is. He can’t.

“I know that,” Jason repeats, softer this time as he begins the process of opening up his shirt to feed her. “But after all the time we’ve spent together…” he purses his lips, “Thought maybe we meant more to you than that.”

Slade shakes his head as he pushes himself away from the wall and towards the door of the cottage, “That was your first mistake, kid.”

“What was?”

“Thinking you know me.” Slade stops with his hand on the handle, “You’re a job, nothing more, and even if things were different, the life I live is no place for you and a kid. However bad you think it will be there, sending you back home to your family really is the best option. Now,” he glances back over his shoulder, “We’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, so make sure you’re ready to go by then.”

“Oh yes,” Jason replies bitterly, still not looking at him, “I’ll be sure to pack all my possessions. I have so many of them here, after all.”

Slade doesn’t even bother dignifying that with an answer.

 

* * *

 

Back when Ra’s first gave him the job, Slade had questioned why he didn’t simply want the boy killed.

Considering that Ra’s had no plans to ransom him, and his entire goal was to stop Bruce Wayne’s accumulation of power by disrupting what would be an important political and military alliance between his and Oliver Queen’s kingdom, it would have made far more sense to Slade to just cut Jason’s pretty throat at the start and be done with it. Ra’s, on the other hand, had bigger plans.

_“Suffering alone is not enough, I also want him to be humiliated. To have his failure to first protect, then find his lost child made apparent to everyone. So you will keep the boy alive for as long as I need you to, though you are free to do whatever else you might like to him in the meantime. The manner of his keeping is entirely at your discretion.”_

Slade had still thought it stupid, of course, but in the end the pay had been more than enough to brush aside any other concerns he had. Kidnap a spoilt little princeling and hold him captive as long as necessary, it was an easy job for easy money. There was no reason to say no.

Except then he had to go and make it complicated.

“So what made your employer decide now is the time to send me back?” Jason asks from his horse.

He’s riding to the left and slightly behind Slade, with the baby — Catherine, he’d named her — in a sling against his chest, and a tether running from his mount to the reins of Slade’s own. Not that Slade expects him to try and run away, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, it also serves as a physical reminder of their respective roles as captor and captive, which Jason very much needs right now.

“Simple, your former betrothed has finally mated with another. Any chance of that alliance going ahead again is now off the table.”

Jason’s horse misses a step, slowing just a second before the tether on Slade’s forces it forward again. “He has?”

“Yes, to a princess from one of the Eastern kingdoms.” Something Ra’s was also subtly responsible for, as the princess in question was secretly allied to him in turn, but the kid doesn’t need to know that. “If it makes you feel any better, he did put it off for as long as he could.”

“I’m not upset.” Jason says, a touch too quickly. “I told you, Roy’s only ever been a friend, and our bonding was only ever going to be political for the sake of our kingdoms. It was what our ‘fathers’ wanted, not us.”

Slade doesn’t believe him. At least in the aspect of not being upset. He’s come to know Jason rather well over their extended time spent together, and the boy can be exceedingly contrary when it comes to his need for acceptance. That his feelings for Prince Roy only extended to friendship is true, but so is the fact that he’s hurt by his intended moving on without him.

“There was a period of mourning first, of course.” Slade carries on, idly, “Most everyone but your own family believes you to be dead now.”

Jason snorts, “After almost two years with no sightings or ransom demand, I don’t blame them.” He’s silent for a moment, “So does your employer know about Cat, too?”

Cat… Slade rolls his eye at the stupid nickname for his daughter. “Yes, of course he does.” And he considered it an added benefit to returning Jason now, of course.

“And I guess if I ask again, you’ll still refuse to give me his name.”

“Correct.”

“Meaning the only name I’ll be able to give to Bruce as responsible for my kidnapping is yours, so it’ll be you he comes after once you do return me.”

Slade immediately stops his horse, then turns in the saddle. “Don’t try to threaten me, kid. It didn’t work before and it won’t work now.”

“I’m just stating facts,” Jason says, meeting his gaze evenly from beneath the hooded cloak Slade made him wear. Anger still burns in his eyes. “Look, if you really don’t want us sticking around you, _fine_ , but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to go back. You could make this a lot easier on both of us by simply untying my horse and letting me make my own way with Cat.”

“Oh?” Slade raises an eyebrow, “And where then, pray tell, would you go?”

Jason thins his lips, “Back to the cottage.”

“With no money and no real survival skills. You’d be dead or forced to seek outside help within the month.”

“I know how to look after myself. I’ve been on my own before.”

“In a city,” Slade replies, hardening his tone, “Stealing and digging through piles of rubbish to survive. Two options you won’t find out here in the wilderness, especially with a baby to worry about.” He shakes his head, “No, I won’t allow it.”

“You won’t _allow_ it?”

“No, I won’t.”

The corner of Jason’s mouth twitches. “Careful there, Slade, you almost sounded like you care.”

He does, but he can’t tell the kid that. Slade likes the thought of him and Catherine dying about as much as he does the idea of falling on his own sword. That is, not at all.

“I _care_ about getting paid, and since my contract specifies me returning you to Gotham, I won’t be if I don’t do that.”

Jason growls. A sound Slade largely ignores as he nudges his horse back into motion again. He knows the kid won’t dare to get into a true argument with him while their daughter’s strapped to his chest. Not like he did during their first couple months stuck together, during which there was a healthy abundance of snarling and not-so-subtle murder attempts. He’d even been impressed by a couple of them (once Jason learned to be more creative than launching himself teeth first in Slade’s direction every time he opened the door to his room, of course).

Kid has gumption, that’s for sure. Far more than most of his breed, which is another aspect of what attracted Slade to him in the beginning, overcoming his usual preference for other alphas. It had been good, too. At first anyway. Hate paired with attraction and need opened the doorway to some intense bouts of sex, and Jason’s complete inexperience in such matters also helped keep the reins firmly in Slade’s hands, just the way he likes it.

“I hope you weren’t ‘paid’ to sleep with me as well,” Jason mutters from behind him, as if reading his mind, “Let me keep at least some of my dignity.”

Slade quirks his lips, secure in knowing the kid won’t be able to see it. “No, that I did entirely at your invitation.”

“Wasn’t like I had any other options.”

There’s bite to the words, and Slade knows he would do well to continue to fuel them in the remaining days they have before he can leave Jason at Gotham’s borders.

“No, that you didn’t.”

Jason doesn’t say anything in response, but Slade can feel — smell — the way he’s now silently fuming behind him.

_Good._

Keeping his head facing forward, he leaves the kid to it.

 

* * *

 

They stick to the back roads, and with the weather being fair even on an infant’s lungs, camp out under the stars rather than risk rooming at a tavern. It’s a choice that also allows Slade to take steps to stop Jason from making any attempt to run off while he’s sleeping without gaining any unwanted attention.

“What if Cat needs me during the night?” he asks, gesturing angrily with his bound hands.

“Then I’ll wake at the sound of her crying and help you with her.” Slade replies, “That’s the way it normally works with parents.”

“Oh, so you are a parent now?” Jason doesn’t miss a beat.

Irritated, Slade pushes the kid down onto the bedroll he’s already laid out for him, before carefully setting Catherine in her nest of blankets beside her mother. “I’ve been a parent longer than you’ve been alive.”

That gets Jason’s attention. He’s mentioned his other children to him before, vaguely and in passing, with no names attached. The only details being that they don’t keep in contact, their mother is also out of the picture, and that he hasn’t seen them in a good long while. Just enough that the kid didn’t get outraged by the idea he was somehow facilitating Slade cheating on someone else whenever they were tangled up in each other.

“So what’s different this time, then? You did it before, why don’t you want to have Catherine around now?”

Slade gives him a long, slow look. “Did you miss the part before where I told you I’m being paid to do this, and that none of my other kids talk to me?”

“No, but you never told me why.”

Ah, he thinks. Perhaps Jason has conjured up some story in his head instead that the fallout that happened is their fault, rather than Slade’s. Or perhaps that Adeline somehow turned them against him. That would actually be preferable to the truth, if he were in even a little way inclined to lie to himself.

“I suppose I didn’t.” Slade sits back on his haunches, watching as Jason awkwardly curls himself around Catherine despite his bound hands. “It’s simple; I was hardly ever there, and even when I was, I was a bastard to them.”

The kid twitches, now a shade more cautious. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, that a man like me, who lives the kind of life I do and enjoys it, is not the kind of man who’s meant to be a father, and I learnt a long time ago that the best thing I can do to help my kids be happy is to stay out of their lives.”

Jason frowns, “That tells me exactly nothing.”

Some things are not meant to be shared, but Slade figures that in this case, a more literal example may be necessary. “Fine then, if you insist. My eldest son hated me so much for the way I treated him that he ran away from home to escape me, then got himself killed in his quest to prove himself a better man than I am. Meanwhile, my younger son had his throat slit by an enemy of mine who was attempting to get vengeance for my actions against him. He survived thankfully, but only barely, and lost his voice in the process. After which their mother, well...” he taps his cheek beneath his missing eye, “Let’s just say she didn’t take it too well.”

Jason’s face has paled, and he seems to have lost his voice as well. Slade lets the silence linger a little before he speaks again. Lets Jason’s imagination fill in all the nasty little blanks with what will mostly likely be accurate guesses.

“ _That’s_ why I have no intention of staying around to parent Catherine, kid. Or even want word being spread that she’s mine. One way or another, she’ll only end up getting hurt if I do.”

He swallows dryly, “I… I don’t…”

“What?”

Jason looks away from him, a fear that had faded away from him the past year now rearing its ugly little head again. “... nothing.”

Slade inclines his head, pretending he doesn’t feel what appears to be a small knife sliding its way between his ribs at the same time. “Good.”

There’s no more talking between them after that. Not even when Catherine wakes them four times through the night crying to be cleaned or fed. Slade helps Jason with each task in stoic silence, doing only the bare minimum to ensure they’re done correctly, all while pretending to ignore the small way Jason flinches back from him again every time he draws close.

It’s better this way.

 

* * *

 

A few days later, Jason finally builds up his courage to talk to him again, outside of muted requests for help with their daughter.

“I think you’re a coward,” he says.

Slade’s hands still in the process of starting the fire for that camp that night. “Excuse me?”

“I said,” Jason answers, gaining steam, “I think you’re a coward.”

Catherine’s on his lap, fast asleep, which is the only reason Slade doesn’t growl at him. There are a lot of insults he’ll take without blinking in life, or laugh off for what they are, but this isn’t one of them.

“And why is that?” For all that he’s trying to curtail his urge to snarl or bare his teeth, the words still come out low and dangerous.

“Because you fucked up,” Jason says, lifting his chin defiantly, “You fucked up bad with your other kids, but rather than try to do better or make amends, you decided to take the easier option and run.”

Slade forces himself to breathe, though he can’t quite stop his hand from clenching tighter around the piece of flint he’s holding. “I’m protecting them.”

“No,” Jason retorts, “That’s just what you’re telling yourself to make you feel better. About them, and about leaving Cat and me.”

Gods damn it. “Get your head out of your ass, kid,” he warns, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I had a terrible father, too, Slade. Two of them in fact. I think I’m more than qualified to speak on the subject.”

He drops the flint, abandoning the pile of twigs and sticks he’s started to get closer to Jason, “Oh do you?”

“Yes,” Jason replies evenly, as Slade leans down in front of him. “I do. And I also think that after everything you’ve put me through, I at least deserve some honesty from you before you leave.”

“I already gave you honesty, it’s your own damn problem if you don’t believe it.” Reaching forward, Slade catches Jason by the throat. Not squeezing, but firm enough to be a warning, “Get it through your thick skull, kid; you’re nothing more than a mark to me, that’s all you’ve ever been since the day we met.”

“Yeah?” Jason shudders, and against his will, Slade gets a lungful of his thickening scent; fear mixed with far too familiar arousal, “That why you’re so pissed off at me calling you out, then?”

“I’m ‘pissed off’,” Slade says carefully, “Because you won’t accept that there’s nothing you can do to change my mind here. You’re going back home, whether you like it or not.”

“And whether _you_ like it or not, too.” The kid meets his gaze evenly, “Right?”

Slade has to fight not to groan.

“What I ‘like’ doesn’t matter. Only the job matters.” he tightens his fingers a little, just enough to feel how rapid Jason’s pulse is beating. “You really will be better off with your family, Jason. You both will.”

“I think I’d be better off making my own decisions,” he bites back, “If only someone in this gods damned world would let me.”

“You’re a fool if you think it’s that simple.”

“The way you do?”

His irritation grows. “Don’t push me, kid.”

“Give me a reason not to.”

Slade reminds himself that Jason has an infant child in his arms, and that getting angry in this situation won’t help anything (or that it would, just in a way he’s not willing to tread). “I’m not playing this game with you.”

He withdraws his hand, but Jason catches his wrist before he can get far.

At once, Slade’s instincts snap to attention, telling him to pin the boy down, to bite him. To remind him both of his claim and their rightful positions, alpha and omega stronger than anything else.

“I can smell you as well, you know,” Jason says, softer this time, “You still want me, too. You can’t hide that from me, Slade.”

He wavers for a moment, slapped in the face again by the knowledge that he’d let his guard too far down around this boy. Grown complacent, while waiting for a deadline that as the months stretched on seemed like it might never come.

“You won’t change my mind.” he warns.

Jason shrugs, like it’s inconsequential, before baring his neck, and _fine._ Slade’s exactly selfish enough to take what’s being offered regardless of the later troubles it may cause. On the boy’s own head be it.

He nips at Jason’s throat, and they separate just long enough to see Catherine settled safely in her nest of blankets before falling back together. Rough and unforgiving, with teeth and nails driving into each other just as much as other parts. It’s hardly something for the poets to write home about, so far as final encounters go, but it suits them just fine. Nothing about this has been gentle from day one.

Only by supreme force of will does Slade resist the urge to leave a scarring bite on the kid’s neck this time, though. A final claim to make sure he really won’t have a chance at drawing the attention of any future suitors if he wants them (as if having a bastard child following at his heels won’t already be deterrent enough).

“Slade,” Jason mutters tiredly, when he finally moves to withdraw from him after his knot goes down. “Don’t…”

Slade ignores the request, reaching for the rope to bind his hands as part of their usual nightly ritual. Tomorrow they’ll reach Gotham and this will at last be over. He can’t afford to take any last minute chances.

Once it’s done, he helps Jason put his skirts back where they ought to be, then settle himself down next to Catherine. It’s gotten cooler now that the sun has vanished beneath the horizon, and he needs to get back to his original task of setting the fire for them.

“Not a love story, kid,” he reminds Jason once more when he feels him watching him, “Remember that.”

There’s a rustle as Jason curls himself tighter around their child. “As if I could ever forget.”

Slade grimaces, keeping his attention on the flames as they build higher in front of him, and resolves never to take another job from Ra’s al Ghul.

 

* * *

 

“So what exactly is your plan for getting us in there?”

Slade leans forward in the saddle as he observes the bustling landscape of Gotham before them. The bridges into the island city are full of people and carts going in both directions, while across the mouth of the river and bay, ships of all sizes make their way in and out of port. As a coastal settlement, Gotham has it made in being particularly difficult to invade without being noticed.

“I’m not, I’m going to get one of the bridge guards, bring them to you, then leave it up to them to take you the rest of the way.”

It’s a far safer bet than stepping into the city himself, where one shout from Jason could see him embroiled in a fight if the kid chooses. Also, it will ensure he has plenty of time to put some distance between himself and the city before their reunion sparks Wayne into calling the cavalry down upon him.

Jason purses his lips, adding to the already unhappy look on his face. He views the city the same way one would view an encroaching fire, with apprehension, fear, and reluctant fascination in the face of all its destructive power.

Slade absolutely does not sympathise, though he does surprisingly find himself trying to offer some comfort. “You have to be looking forward to reuniting with your family at least.”

“My ‘father’ pressed me into accepting an arranged bonding all for the sake of duty, and my older brother only ever pays attention to me when I do something wrong, while Tim…” he hesitates, “Well let’s just say I’ve not always been the nicest person to him. He was probably relieved I was gone.”

Slade doubts that very much. He knows far more about the fallout from Jason’s disappearance than the kid himself does, after all. The reward Wayne had put out for his safe return had been an astronomical sum, and Jason’s elder brother, Prince Dick, the one who apparently doesn’t pay attention to him (and who Jason has ranted about in suspiciously detailed ways to Slade before) had run himself ragged personally leading the search for his missing younger brother. Tim is the only one he doesn’t know about, though he suspects that’s because the boy’s age and fellow status as an omega stopped him from being allowed to act much, rather than not caring at all.

“I think you’re trying too hard to convince yourself there’s no reason for you to go back.”

Jason snorts, “There’s plenty of reasons not to.”

Slade turns in the saddle, eyeing him again, “If you’re including me in them, you need to reset your priorities. Remember that I killed your guards, kidnapped you and held you captive. Just because we got a little ‘friendly’ with each other later on doesn’t change what happened at the start.”

“As you keep reminding me.” Jason looks down at Catherine, running a gentle finger over her brow as she babbles at him.

“And yet still the message doesn’t get through.”

“Oh, a message got through all right; that you’re just as much a disappointment in my life as everyone else.”

Slade grips his horse’s reins so tight the leather actually creaks. “Let me put it another way, then. If I hadn’t been a constant in your life for the last eighteen months, if we hadn’t lived in each other's pockets the entire time, and if it hadn’t been for your heats driving you, would you have ever actually wanted an alpha like me near you in the first place?”

Jason stiffens, finger now held tight in his daughter’s grasp. “I…” he shifts his eyes to him, “You accepted the invitation. You wanted _me_.”

“I think we’ve already established that I’m a very bad man who’s more than happy to take advantage of what’s offered to him. Particularly when it comes from something as young and pretty as you are.” Slade rolls his eye, “You’re avoiding the question.”

Jason’s eyes shutter as uncertainty clouds his face. “... I don’t know.”

“And if you hadn’t gotten pregnant afterwards, would you be fighting so hard to stay with me now?”

This time, the kid shudders, “Probably not.”

“No, probably not.” Slade sighs as he dismounts, “Trust me, kid, once you’ve been away from me a little while, you’ll start to see things clearly again. This is where you belong.”

Undoing the tether of Jason’s horse from his own, he moves to tie it to a nearby tree instead, and gets as far as finishing the knot before the kid breaks the silence once more.

“Maybe. But you still don’t want to leave me, or her.”

Slade grimaces, feeling a headache coming on. Like a dog with a bone, this one. “Kid…”

“Just hear me out. What if there was a third option? One where we could both have a chance of getting what we want.”

A third option? Slade turns his head, while narrowing his eye. “What are you talking about?”

Jason pauses, drawing it out just long enough for Slade to begin to think he may have been bluffing, before forging on ahead, “You come into the city with me, up to the palace gates, and I tell Bruce that you’re my rescuer instead of my kidnapper.”

That’s… brazen.

Slade shakes his head. “I doubt he’d believe that, especially once he hears my name and reputation. I’m not exactly known to be the rescuing type. Especially out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Fine,” Jason doesn’t miss a beat, “Then I’ll tell him you saved me only because I promised you a reward for doing so.”

Leaning against the tree, Slade considers the offer. The reward Wayne had put out for the kid’s return already was pretty substantial. “Hm, and why should I trust that once we’re in there you won’t just decide to tell him the truth instead as a way to get back at me for returning you?”

Jason’s lips twitch, “When I can keep it as something to dangle over your head in the future? Absolutely not.” He leans forward in the saddle, still letting Catherine play with his fingers. “Face it, Slade, it would be win-win for you. Pay from your employer and from Bruce. Plus, it would mean you’d still be able to return to Gotham for work in the future without having to look back over your shoulder the entire time, or worry about other bounty hunters pursuing you on Bruce’s behalf elsewhere.”

It’s a devious plan, certainly, and abruptly, Slade remembers that it wasn’t only Jason’s looks that attracted him to the boy in the beginning. “True enough, but then what do you get out of the deal? You’ll still have to go home, after all. What benefit does this possibly have for you?”

“Aside from what I just mentioned? Seeing Bruce have to pay out for sending me away in the first place, and,” he watches Slade intently, “I’d get to see you again. Cat would get to see you again.”

Slade raises an eyebrow, “And let me guess, if I don’t fulfil that last part, you’ll go ahead and tell him the truth about me anyway?”

Jason nods, and before he can stop it Slade finds himself laughing. It’s _good_ , and he doesn’t doubt the boy’s been working through the idea almost the entire time they’ve been riding. “You do realise that for this to work, though, you’d have to keep my part in her parentage a complete secret, even from her?”

“I thought that was what you wanted anyway, not to have to play the part of her father. Though if you change your mind…” Jason shrugs, “We can always reconsider once she’s old enough to know how to keep a secret.”

“Hm,” Slade strokes his beard, “Not bad, kid, but even if I do walk in as your mercenary rescuer, your father still won’t be happy with you seeing a man like me again.”

“You telling me you don’t know how to sneak your way past a few castle guards, old man? Thought the mighty Deathstroke was better than that.”

Gods damn it, he’s actually starting to like the sound of this. He really shouldn’t say yes, but there’s no denying Slade feels the appeal in getting paid twice, as well as the chance to see Jason again if he feels like it. He’d be able to keep a closer eye on Catherine’s progress, too, without attaching any of the risks to her that come with being known either privately or publicly as her father. Though hopefully in a better way than he did with Rose.

“Look at it this way,” Jason adds determinedly, as he mulls it over, “You take this deal and we both get something we want out of it. And if it does break down or one of us changes our minds again in the future, well,” he leans back, “Then things won’t end up any different than if we just went ahead and followed your plan now anyway.”

Also a good point.

Reaching over, Slade starts to run his hand along the tether holding Jason’s horse to the tree while taking slow steps closer to him.

“You know, kid,” he hums, “It’s a real shame you’re royalty, and that I already have a prior agreement with someone else as to your fate. With that degree of ruthlessness on your side, I think you’d be able to make rather a good career out of being a mercenary yourself.”

Jason blinks as Slade draws nearer. “Even though I’m an omega?”

“Designation holds you back only as much as you let it. I’ve known more than a few formidable omega warriors in my time.” He stops with his hand now resting on Jason’s horse’s reins. “And you at least already know how to fight.”

Cautiously, Jason settles back down, clearly pleased by the compliment. “So?” he presses.

“So,” Slade says, drawing out a knife from his belt, “I still think you’re going to have a nasty wake up call after living a few weeks without me, but you’re not entirely wrong about everything else either.” With one swift motion, he cuts the tether free, then offers the reins of the horse for the first time to her rider, “We’ll give this a try, but if I go in there with you and you try to betray me, rest assured, I’ll make sure to kill as many people you care about as I can before they take me down.”

He watches the way the kid’s throat bobs as he swallows a little too closely, as well as notices the way arousal twines with fear again in his scent. “Understood.”

Nodding, Slade withdraws back to his own horse. As much as he’d like to do otherwise, it’s better not to encourage that too much considering where they’re going next.

“Now, if you really are serious about this, we’re going to have to get our stories straight before we get in there. Including an identity for your fake kidnapper, as well as how I found you.”

“Well, you mercenaries are a fairly ruthless lot, probably even to your friends, right?” Jason parrots back his choice of descriptor to him, “Maybe we can tie both of those things into one.”

“How so?”

“Easy, you and my kidnapper were friends of a sort, but when you found out what he was doing, you decided the money Bruce could offer you for my safe return was a better bet than splitting whatever his boss had already agreed to pay him. Then there was a fight, from which you walked away the winner.”

“Naturally.” Slade feels his lips curl into a smile despite himself. He really does like the way this kid thinks. “And afterwards, I packed you up and brought you and the child he’d sired on you back to Gotham as quickly as I could, not sending word on ahead out of fear of attracting other bounty hunters who might try to take the reward money for themselves. Is that right?”

Jason nods, prompting Slade to chuckle.

“Hm, not bad, kid. Not bad.”

“So we’re doing it?”

Slade nods, “There’s a few more details we’ll need to work out, but we can take care of those as we ride. Just make sure you stick close to me as we go, we don’t need anyone else overhearing.”

Guiding his horse forwards himself, Jason is only too happy to comply, offering words and suggestions the entire time they’re heading down towards the nearest bridge into Gotham. Slade is content to let him direct the majority of the conversation, too, only nudging him here and there to make sure he keeps the details straight in his head.

And if the kid takes his instruction to stick close to him a little more literally than is strictly necessary along the way? Well, he can deal with that. In this case, the risk of everything he’s done this last year is most certainly shaping up to be worth the reward.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/firefright)


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